The next day, Zhu Di, who had besieged Zhending for three days, set off to return north, not only because Qiu Fu was killed and Qu Neng arrived, but more importantly, because peace appeared. According to the report of Chen Xuan, the defender of Zhuozhou, two days ago, Ping An suddenly appeared under the city of Zhuozhou, Chen Xuan went out of the city to meet the defeat and was beheaded more than 2,000 levels, Chen Xuan fled back to the city, and closed his door; Ping'an did not attack the city, nor did he stay, but went to Fangshan and Liangxiang, and it is likely that he has arrived in Beiping at this moment.

Zhu Di was shocked when he heard the report, he knew Ping An very well, he was his subordinate before, but he was transferred to Suiyuan in the past two years, but he didn't expect to meet again and give himself a dismissal. Zhu Di had to give up the plan of raiding Hejian and eliminating Yang Song, Pan Zhong, and Xu Kai, and immediately ordered the troops to return to Beiping. In order to stabilize the morale of the army, he said to his subordinates: "Ping An is just a pawn under the command of this king, after the training of this king, he has three points of ability, you don't have to worry, immediately return to Beiping with this king, if Ping An runs away, otherwise it depends on how this king cleans him up." ”

The generals were a little relieved, pulled out the camp, returned to Beiping, and when they left, Zhu Di put Geng Bingwen's headless body into the coffin and left it under the city, but the head was still hanging on the flagpole and was not taken off. After the Yan army returned to the north, his son Geng Cheng hurriedly went out of the city, took off his father's head, sewn it together with his body, and then put it into a coffin, and set up a mourning hall in the city.

At this time, Gao Wei made Zhu Yunwen's holy decree public, saying that there was a reward for killing Zhu Di as a prince, and the generals couldn't help but be excited when they heard it. This holy decree should have been issued a long time ago, but due to Geng Bingwen's reasons, the generals have not known about it, which cannot but be said to be a pity.

Qu Neng, He Fu and others also entered the city to mourn, under He Fu's narration, everyone knew the truth about Geng Bingwen's suicide, and couldn't help but hate Gu Cheng's rebellion and Li Jian's naivety, but some people questioned He Fu's innocence, thinking that he ran down from the mountain to earn the city, but he didn't succeed, so he ran to the other side to continue lurking. In the face of accusations, He Fu was speechless, and finally Qu Neng relieved him, explaining that it was because of He Fu's suggestion that he ambushed Qiu Fu on the south bank and killed him, so He Fu's suspicion can be ruled out; But immediately some people thought that this was a bitter ploy, in short, everyone's suspicion of He Fu could not be eliminated, it was really a painful lesson this time, General Pingyan was forced to commit suicide, the deputy general surrendered to the enemy, the two large camps outside the city were broken, and the city of Zhending was almost lost.

On the morning of the same day, Wu Jie, Marquis of Anlu, rushed to Zhending City with a will, announced the will of the imperial court, and Ping'an was appointed as the general of Pingyanzuo, and Wu Jie and Qu Neng were deputy generals respectively, commanding the first-line army of Zhending and Bauhinia Pass. Although everyone felt that Ping'an and Qu Neng were promoted too high, they all knew that these two people were the emperor's henchmen, so they naturally didn't dare to say more.

After Wu Jie and Qu Neng took office, they immediately sent people to Bauhinia Pass to read out the emperor's will, and asked them to come to Zhending safely. In addition, he wrote to the imperial court to explain the great change, and Geng Zhen asked for his life to help Geng Bingwen's coffin back to Fengyang's hometown for burial, and Wu Jie and Qu Neng agreed. In the remaining days, Qu Neng and Wu Jie began to concise their soldiers and eliminate the old and weak in order to fight again.

A few days later, the imperial court issued an edict ordering Gao Wei, He Fu, and Geng Zhen to enter Beijing to explain the incident.

Ping An arrived at Bauhinia Pass on November 3, and when he learned the news of Zhu Di's southward movement, Ping An immediately decided to attack Beiping and disturb Beiping, because Zhu Yunwen gave him a holy decree that he would attack Beiping and contain Zhu Di from going south. So after he defeated Chen Xuan the next day, he didn't stay, he wanted to see if he could sneak attack Beiping, even if it didn't work, he would turn Beiping upside down.

The 20,000 cavalry under the command of Ping An was formed according to Zhu Yunwen's secret decree, and after ascending the throne, Zhu Yunwen secretly ordered Ping An to transfer the cavalry of Shaanxi and Suiyuan in Suiyuan to form the Guards Cavalry Army, and Ping An was the commander of the army, under the jurisdiction of four guards, and the commanders were Song Xuan, Lin Tianmu, Long Qicheng and the Mongolian Morgen, of which Song Xuan concurrently served as the commander of the army. With the full support of Zhu Yunwen, Song Sheng, and Hetao Racecourse, the cavalry army quickly took shape, all in black armor, well-equipped, and well-trained.

After learning of Chen Xuan's rebellion, Xu Huizu secretly ordered Ping An to enter Datong, in fact, this was allowed by Zhu Yunwen in advance, Zhu Yunwen formed the Guards Cavalry Army, the purpose is to attack Beiping from Juyong Pass, but unfortunately people are not as good as the sky, and when Ping An arrived at the same time, Juyong Pass has been lost, and Zhu Yunwen had to be ordered to go out of Bauhinia Pass safely and attack Beiping. In Zhu Yunwen's view, the only one who can fight with Zhu Di in the field is Ping'an, and Sheng Yong can only fight defensive counterattacks, so Zhu Yunwen has high hopes for Ping'an and almost responds to his needs.

Ping'an's cavalry was as fast as a hurricane, and the supplies they carried with them such as meat floss and fried noodles could support their long-distance attacks. On November 4, he defeated Chen Xuan, captured Fangshan and Liangxiang on November 5, and arrived outside the city of Beiping on November 6. A corner of Beiping supplies 200,000 troops, the supply of grain and grass is tight, Ru Yu, Guo Zi and others have to collect the people's surplus grain, now it is winter, the people are hungry and cold, miserable, peace is in the heart of the hungry people, but everyone is worried that when the king of Yan returns, they will suffer. Ping'an called on everyone to go to Zhigu, saying that the imperial court had prepared food in Zhigu and provided ships to help the people leave Beiping and live a good life. These are all based on Zhu Yunwen's will, he planned to lure the people of Beiping to Zhigu with grain, and then transport it to Liaodong to enrich the northeast, so as to kill two birds with one stone, not only reduce the population of Beiping, weaken Zhu Di's war potential, but also achieve the purpose of enriching Liaodong.

Peiping.

All the affairs of Peking were handled by Zhu Gaochi, the son of King Yan, with the assistance of Ru Yu and Guo Zi. It has been a month since Zhu Di raised the army, and in order to supply military rations, the three of them were busy and collected all the surplus grain that could be collected, but it was only enough until March next year, which means that after four months, if there is no new food source, the Yan army will collapse without a fight.

The three of them were discussing the matter of food, but there was no result, and in the end, they could only hope that Zhu Di would go south this time and be able to grab some food, otherwise the three of them really had no choice.

At this moment, the guard at the door said: "Shizi, Li Yibin has an urgent matter to see outside the door." ”

"Li Rang? Let him in. ”

After a while, Li Rang came in from outside the door, and Shi Li said: "Shizi, two adults, something is wrong, a large number of cavalry have appeared outside the city. ”

"Cavalry?" Zhu Gaochi hurriedly stood up and said, "Where did the cavalry come from?" What is the flag? ”

"I don't know, all black clothes and black armor, the flag is a 'ping' word."

"Ping? Is it peace? Zhu Gaochi blurted out and hurriedly said, "Quick, let's go to the city and have a look." ”

Zhu Gaochi and the others got into the carriage and rushed to Zhengyangmen. When they arrived in the city, Zhu Gaochi and the others were stunned, this was a completely black ocean, the cavalry did not wear the traditional red armor of the Ming Dynasty, but chose the solid color of black clothes and black armor, and the visual impact of tens of thousands of black-armored cavalry was very amazing.

Ping An and Song Xuan were observing the city wall, looking for weak points, but found that the prince's honor guard appeared on the city. Ping An frowned and said, "Could it be that the information is wrong, the Yanshu people are in the city?" ”

"What's wrong? Scared? Song Xuan teased.

"I'm not afraid, but the Yanshu people are really difficult to deal with." Speaking of this, Ping'an took the binoculars and looked at it: "Ao, it's wrong, it should be the son of the Yanshu people, hehe, I'll shoot him an arrow." ”

Ping'an picked up the bow and arrow, aimed at the people in the city, felt that it was almost over, and as soon as his hand was loosened, a feather arrow came out of the string and shot straight into Zhu Gaochi's Luo umbrella, which frightened Zhu Gaochi and sat on the ground. Li Rang hurriedly moved Zhu Gaochi behind the battlements. Zhu Gaochi recovered quickly, bowed his head and gave Li Rang a few words.

Li Rang nodded and shouted loudly down, "Is it General Ping'an?" ”

Ping'an smiled and didn't answer, but another arrow shot over, so frightened that Li Rang also hid behind the battlement.

Ping An put down the arrow and said regretfully: "This telescope is really good, you can see people's faces, but when you shoot arrows, you can only see a black dot, if you can use a telescope when shooting arrows." ”

"Haha, general, this question, I once asked the emperor, and the emperor said that it can be done, but now the technology can't reach it."

"Technology?"

"It's what craftsmanship means."

"Oh, the emperor really knows everything." Ping An sighed and said, "Song Tongzhi, it seems that Beiping City can't be captured, where will we go next?" ”

"This," Song Xuan said with a smile: "The general has already made up his mind, and he came to play the last general, the Xishan camp, such a big piece of fat, can you still let it go?" ”

"That's right, that's what Lao Tzu meant, let's go, go to Xishan!"

With Ping'an's order, the cavalry moved westward, but left the cavalry to cruise downstream of Beiping City to prevent people from entering and leaving the city.

Seeing Ping'an's cavalry coming and going freely, Zhu Gaochi was also helpless, there were only 10,000 people in the city, and most of them were old, weak, sick and disabled, if Ping'an made up his mind to attack the city, maybe he couldn't resist it, let alone go out of the city. Thinking of this, Zhu Gaochi smiled bitterly, looked back at the people around him, but happened to hear Feng Sheng say: "The purpose of peace is the Xishan camp!" ”

"What?" Zhu Gaochi was shocked: "Song Guogong, what should I do?" ”

"There's nothing you can do," Feng Sheng shook his head and said, "Now we can't even get out of the city." ”

On the night of November 5, General Ping Yanzuo led 20,000 black-armored cavalry to raid the Xishan camp. Fang Kuan, the commander of the left battalion, did not care for the soldiers, the hearts of the people were not attached, the Henan army mutinied, the army collapsed, and Fang Kuan himself died in battle; Xu Zhong, the commander of the right battalion, relied on the fortifications to resist desperately and held the right battalion, but suffered heavy casualties.

Although Ping An won, more than 5,000 people were killed or wounded, which made Ping An, Song Xuan and others sad.

After dawn, Ping'an drove the troops to attack the right battalion, to no avail, Ping'an then set fire to the left battalion, Zhu Gaochi of Beiping was unable to reinforce, so he could only report to Zhu Di urgently and ask for reinforcements.

On November 7, Ping'an and Song Xuan drove their troops to besiege Beiping, but they were put on a line by Zhu Gaochi, and after the troops climbed up the city, they took refuge in the Yan army. Ping'an was furious and wanted to slaughter the army, but was dissuaded by Song Xuan.

When they heard that Zhu Di led an army of 100,000 to rush back in the starry night, Ping'an and Song Xuan immediately burned all the captured supplies, and then ordered the surrendered army to rush to Zhigu, saying that there was food there. And Ping An and others also rushed to Zhigu, and then went south along the river, arrived in Cangzhou, and joined Sheng Yong, and it was also here that Ping An knew his will to be appointed as General Pingyan Left and Sheng Yong to be appointed as General Pingyan Right.

When Zhu Di arrived in Beiping, Ping An had already fled, and when he knew that Fang Kuan was killed in battle, the left battalion collapsed, and the news of the loss of 50,000 troops, Zhu Di was furious, but he didn't know who to find to vent, and finally ordered Zhang Yu and others to go to recover the surrendered army, promising to forgive all their sins.